Architecture Competitions Yearbook 2020

Prévia do material em texto

Architecture is 
a Competition
Editorial
L ast year, as we were beginning our journey with Architecture Competitions Yearbook, we posed a simple question: “Can such a publication exist?”. The success of that issue clearly 
showed that not only it can exist, but it should! Our second edition 
brings up a much more complex debate and although we do not expect 
to rectify it within a single issue, it is our hope that we never stop trying 
to figure it out, for as long as this project lasts. We will keep asking what 
this publication can become. 
The second issue of ACY showcases 10 of the most inspiring and 
interesting architectural competitions that took part in 2020, alongside 
3 interviews, where our guests highlight the importance and meaning of 
participating in architectural competition and its influence on the devel-
opment of architecture. They speak about the influence of those compe-
titions in their own growth, building their career and learning by working 
with and against international competitors.
The main focus of this edition is to understand the design process 
behind all winning submissions. That’s why we have asked all 10 win-
ners presented in this book a simple question: “What made you win?”. 
We’re curious about their path, from the first draft, first blueprint to the 
full-scale plan. We’re also interested to see which solutions had been 
dropped on the way, what kind of choices had to be made, and most 
importantly, what was the grand idea behind the project. That is why we 
asked for sketches, drafts and detailed description, so that we can fully 
understand their technique and the process that resulted in the awarded 
works. The feedback that we had received greatly exceeded our expec-
tations and so we added a new ‘formula’ to this issue. In addition to an 
overview of works from 2020, you will find here a great deal of advice and 
suggestions on how to run a good project. I am certain that this book 
will be of great value to you, that can be reflected in your future projects. 
With this issue we would also like to sum up a very unusual year, that will 
certainly be remembered due to the lasting pandemic. We hope that the 
second edition of ACY that you’re now holding will inspire you to face the 
emerging challenges and result in many interesting projects.
Marcin Husarz
Architect & Founder of Competitions.archi
—
FoundEr & PublishEr
& editor-in-chief
Marcin Husarz
marcin@competitions.archi
—
Contributors
Marta Szmidt
Kamil Grajda
Ania Rola
Izabela Kurgan
—
For AdvErtising on ACY
hello@yearbook.archi
—
grAPhiC dEsign & dtP
Wojtek Świerdzewski
—
Print
Printing House KiD s.c.
—
CovEr
Zean Macfarlane
—
www.yearbook.archi
We do NOT own any rights to the 
projects shown in the book. All projects 
were sent to us by the competition 
organizers giving “Competitions.archi” 
permission to distribute the content 
online or on print.
24 — 32 interview: redesigning ourselves with every project
34 — 53 Archstorming: African house design Competition
54 — 73 blank space: Fairy tales 2020
74 — 95 the Kaira looro Competition: Emergency operations Center
96 — 113 Young Architects Competitions: Xi’An train station
114 — 129 bee breeders: iceland volcano Museum Competition
14 — 23 interview: starting with a pencil and a blank page
130 — 147 evolo: Skyscraper competition 2021
148 — 165 reuse italy: re-use the roman ruin – Piscina Mirabilis
166 — 181 Arch-sharing: happy homes France Competition
182 — 199 openGap.net: innatur 9 competition
200 — 210 Arkxsite: site Mirador
08 — 12 interview: Can unbuilt projects change architecture?
1st prize – Jorejick Family House | 35
2nd prize – African House | 40
3rd prize – Generational House | 44
Special, Honorable Mentions | 48
How we won that competition? | 50
1st prize – The Year Without a Winter | 55
2nd prize – Symbiosis | 60
3rd prize – Lloronas of Juárez | 64
Honorable Mentions | 68
How we won that competition? | 70
1st prize – Foldable Emeregency Shelter | 75
2nd prize – SAFE House | 80
3rd prize – Kaira Loro | 84
Special, Honorable Mentions | 88
How we won that competition? | 90
1st prize – Xi’An Train Station | 97
2nd prize – Xi’An Train Station | 102
3rd prize – Xi’An Train Station | 104
Dow Gold, Renolit, Honorable Mentions | 106
How we won that competition? | 108
1st prize – The Windows of Hverfjall | 115
2nd prize – Crater II | 118
3rd prize – Hverfjall Volcano Museum | 120
BB Green Award – Promenade | 122
Honorable Mentions | 124
How we won that competition? | 126
1st prize – Epidemic Babel: Healthcare Emergency 
Skyscraper | 131
2nd prize – Egalitarian Nature: Vertical Green Park 
For Urban Areas | 134
3rd prize – Coast Breakwater: Vertical Community In Senegal 
For Rising Sea Levels | 136
Honorable Mentions | 138
How we won that competition? | 142
1st prize – Priscina Mirabilis | 149
2nd prize – Priscina Mirabilis | 152
3rd prize – Priscina Mirabilis | 156
Honorable Mentions | 160
How we won that competition? | 162
1st prize – Botte de Paile | 167
2nd prize – Can Silo | 170
3rd prize – Agora | 174
Honorable Mentions | 178
How we won that competition? | 180
1st prize – Buque de La Artes | 183
2nd prize – Artifacts of Entropy | 188
3rd prize – Returning | 192
Honorable Mentions | 196
How we won that competition? | 198
1st prize – Site Mirador | 201
2nd prize – In Situ | 204
3rd prize – Site Mirador | 206
Honorable Mentions | 208
How we won that competition? | 210
Contents
ACY∙2020 5
African house design 
Competition
the Kaira looro
Competition
Fairy tales 2020
Xi’An train station 
Competition
skyscraper 
competition 2021
iceland volcano 
Museum Competition
34
74
54
96
130
114
SMR64465
Water that digs, water that gives shape. 
The Mirador arises from the reflection of digging as a gesture, an action 
that gives shape to matter, as the ocean waves are continuously giving 
shape to the cliffs.
Elements obtained from the casting of concrete and red earth in 
sculpted wooden formworks are the carriers of the mirador. 
A presence as primitive element connected to the ancient preexistences, 
which aims to be a crossing between land and sea, a point that leads 
to the discovery of the horizon, to meditation, a filter of natural lights 
before the complete openess to the landscape.
concrete + red earth “sculptures”a filter between the earth and the ocean carved wooden formworks - prototype in clay entrance detail - 1:33 model surface test - 1:33 model west facade - 1:33 model
re-use the roman 
ruin – Piscina Mirabilis
site Mirador 
Competition
happy homes France
Competition
innatur 9 competition
148
200166 182
Competitions Competitions
ACY∙2020 ACY∙20206 7
Can unbuilt projects 
change architecture?
nathalie de vries’s take on competitions, 
utopian futures they represent and why they 
remind her of a pressure cooker.
Marcin Husarz: Natalie, please tell me a few words about yourself.
Nathalie de Vries: I’m an architect and an urbanist from the Netherlands, educated 
in Delft. Soon after I graduated, I started my own office by winning a competition. With 
my, still, partners we won a European Competition in Berlin so we were quite young. 
We didn’t have an office at that time, but people thought we were an office, so from 
that moment alone we started to look at ourselves also as an office.
Is winning a competition a good time to start your own office? 
After our graduation we started working for other offices, but of course we soon dis-
covered we also wanted to do something that really came from ourselves and not for 
the employers we were working for. And we thought competitions are a wonderful 
way to explore our own ideas further and have a little freedom in what to do.
What was the first competition you took part in?
I think I took part in competitions as a student. One of the first was with my now hus-
band, but itdidn’t work out that well [laugh]. We were also quarrelling a lot. So you 
could say that the European Competition was the first serious competition we did 
with a third partner, and that proved to be the magic formula. Why were we so inter-
ested in that competition? Because we had to figure out new ways of living in the city. 
The European [Competition] is dedicated to housing and the development of the cit-
ies and we really saw it as a nice platform to investigate and show our ideas.
What are the benefits of taking part in architecture competitions?
In a good competition everybody has the same chances, the same opportunities. And 
if a lot is asked for, we also think it should be fair that the competitions are paid for, 
especially invited competitions. Also the uninvited ones are an excellent possibility 
for young architects, who are not that well known, to gain a platform. Looking at the 
results you can also always learn about yourself and about others. I would also say it 
gives a sort of indication of what’s going on in contemporary architecture, when you 
look at the results of a competition. 
Is there any specific design process you follow when starting a new project?
I wish there would be a magic formula on how to participate in a competition, so you 
always win. I think the best ones are when you are able to actually go to the site. Or 
when it’s hypothetical, that it sort of continues themes that you are already working 
on. I would say participating in a competition makes it possible to explore ideas and 
to really make a statement. So it is important when you work on a competition, we 
think, is that we make up design that really communicates an idea. It’s always a lot of 
pleasure to see the finished project, to have these panels or boards or just this sort of 
one project in an overview. So that’s the fun part I would say - because if you win and 
it will be built, many hard years will follow. Competition has something artificial about 
it as well - it’s like it pretends that you can have a perfect idea in a couple of weeks or 
months. So that’s also something about a competition - you can try something, but 
you know reality will come as well. When you build - a lot of the projects we make 
are also a long dialog with the site, with the money, with the budget, with structural 
issues. It’s a hyperdense format. Like a pressure cooker way of thinking about archi-
tecture. 
Are there any differences between the regular projects you work on and the 
projects you prepare for architecture competitions?
I’d say in competitions the projects are often a bit more sharp and extreme, and out-
spoken, because there’s less dialog watering down things. On the other hand if you 
have a direct under commission - after the conversation with the client unexpected 
things can happen…. I’ve never thought about it, if you’re just working in isolation.
interview interview
Competitions are 
a wonderful way to 
explore our own ideas 
further and have a little 
freedom in what to do.
Perspective depuis la rue d’Orléans
Perspective depuis l’angle Zola-Joffre
Rennes Palais du Commerce by MVRDV, France
ACY∙2020 ACY∙20208 9
Can unbuilt projects change architecture?
I mean I’m looking here at this magazine and seeing something like this I’m think-
ing that I don’t know what client would answer this, if only they would… So I think 
competitions can bring us to dreams, futures, show something like a utopian vision 
of the future as well. A good competition, I think... I remember competition designs 
for Park La Villette, that was during my study years. We all just looked at different solu-
tions that the architects had made for that competition and they informed us in so 
many different ways, also the ones that were not built. Because they can be so strong 
and powerful, they can still have an influence. I mean, our first competition design 
together for Berlin Voids Project was never built, but it still plays an important role in 
our own architectural language. It was the kickoff point, that assembled many of the 
ideas we had together. So also unbuilt projects can change architecture that is built.
If you had the chance to start your architecture career again, is there anything 
you would change?
I think I wouldn’t change a thing, because I think when you’re young you just go for it 
and think ‘this is it, this has to be done’. Now, I’m thinking maybe twice or three times. 
I’m thinking a lot about things and at that time we just went for it. I think that’s good 
as well. I mean competitions are also out there to explore possibilities. 
What’s the role of an architect in contemporary society? 
Architecture has always been an integrative profession. We include many aspects of 
design. You know: cultural, technical, societal. I think in an era, where more and more 
things get specialized, it’s very interesting as an architect to remain this generalist 
person, who actually thinks about how things could come together. Because if you 
want to do good quality architecture, good quality environments, cities, if you want to 
change the way we build, that’s something we have to do in the future. A lot of aspects 
of design have to be coordinated and brought into, and translated into buildings. So I 
think our general outlook and our genericness in what we can do is a very important 
quality to use these days. So we don’t go in one or in another direction. 
How does the internet/social media impact architecture?
I think information about architecture is going around the world like that [snaps her 
fingers] right now. Because in the past we had a publication, and one year from the 
first publication in the Netherlands it would probably be somewhere in Korea. Now 
everything is online and everything is available for everyone instantly. I think there’s 
much more dialogue in general about architecture. The community therefore almost 
gets smaller and bigger at the same time, news spread fast. I hope it helps everybody 
to learn from the best examples.
Competitions can 
bring us to dreams, 
futures, show 
something like 
a utopian vision of 
the future.
Our general outlook 
and our genericness 
in what we can do 
is a very important 
quality.
Young City Gdańsk by MVRDV, Poland Holland Village by MVRDV, Singapore
interview interview
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202010 11
A co-founder and principal architect and urban designer of MVRDV, an 
interdisciplinary studio that works at the intersection of architecture and 
urbanism. Together with co-founder, Jacob van Rijs she has published 
MVRDV Buildings (2013), about the post-occupancy and the making of the 
built work of MVRDV. 
De Vries has created a diverse body of work in a variety of scales and 
typologies that are grounded in connecting individuals, communities and 
environments. Her approach has resulted in much acclaimed projects that 
activate their contexts, public spaces and communities. Over the past 25 
years she has designed and realised Dutch projects such as Villa VPRO, 
Silodam Housing, and the Spijkenisse Library as well and the masterplans 
for Nieuw Leyden and Westerpark West in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
Recent projects include the award winning Baltyk office tower in Poland, 
as well as office projects in Łódź, Shanghai, and Colombo, housing projects 
in Rennes, France, San Francisco, USA and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 
In addition to her work for MVRDV, De Vries engages as Professor of Archi-
tectural Design at Delft University of Technology. Between 2015–2019 she 
was president of the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects BNA. She regularly 
lectures at renowned universities and engages in international juries. 
NathaLie de Vries
photo: Erik Smits
Is the design process different now, as opposed to 20-30 years ago?
I do notice that certain styles and fashions are spreading fast. I see it sometimes in the 
office: things popping up and at the same time with students as well. And then you 
know that everybody saw the same thing.But I guess at the same time the amount of 
influences grew so much, I’m not sure if it’s any different from 20 years ago, when the 
international magazine got to everybody’s doormat or whether you see things online. 
In the end, architecture is a slow profession. In the end I always say it has to get built 
and someday you will be confronted with the real thing. So, whatever means you use 
to get there; I like that digitalization helps to integrate much more teamwork – that is 
also part of the architect’s building information management. Scripting all these tools 
enriches our lives so much.
In the end, 
architecture is 
a slow profession. 
Someday you will be 
confronted with the 
real thing.
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WE OPEN 
THE SPACE
45°
interview
ACY∙202012
starting with a pencil
and a blank page
An interview with robert Konieczny on the 
importance of designing from scratch, avoiding 
Pinterest and failing.
Marcin Husarz: Let’s start at the beginning. Where did you first get the idea to 
become an architect?
Robert Konieczny: It was actually my dad’s idea, which my mom later joined, and 
it was my parents who were trying to convince me, at the time, to try architecture 
studies. I was a lost youngster who didn’t know what he wanted and didn’t believe 
in himself. Back in the days it was believed that only the best and children of promi-
nent people were being accepted in the school of architecture and I was neither. I was 
smart but lazy and I certainly wasn’t a child of someone important so I was convinced 
that I don’t stand a chance. 
My parents talked me into meeting a famous architect, my aunt’s neighbor, so that he 
could check if I was a suitable candidate. It turned out he was sure that I was seriously 
training and drawing to get the spot, whereas my last drawing experience happened 
in kindergarten. He asked to see some of my works, which I didn’t have. All I took with 
me was a crumpled drawing pad and a pencil. I could tell he felt snubbed so he put 
me down in front of a staircase at his office and told me to draw it. Back then I had no 
idea how perspective worked and how to do an architectural drawing, so I sat down 
and was given an hour to finish. He was feeling very disrespected and showed it in the 
way he was treating us. I remember my mom telling me that I no longer had to apply 
for the mentioned studies as long as I didn’t embarrass them at that time. He took off 
for that hour and when he came back he said that I was a diamond in the rough. It was 
then when I started believing in myself and started attending drawing classes, a year 
before my exam. Things just took off from that moment.
Our magazine is directed to students and young architects so I’d like to ask 
about your college experience. You mentioned in one of the interviews that 
you tailored your programme to your needs and didn’t attend all classes al-
though you passed all of them. Apparently, all you cared about during that 
time was designing. Do you think studies should be treated as a whole or there 
are some benefits to the selective approach that you had?
I didn’t have any grand plan back then and I am far from convincing anyone to fol-
low my path - meaning focusing on selected subjects and only ignoring the rest. 
Unfortunately, this is what I did. Obviously, I’m smarter nowadays so I’d probably do it 
a bit differently and I would encourage everyone to focus on the most important things 
and swiftly pass the complementing subjects. Knowledge of various subjects is re-
quired to create and I admit that I’m sometimes missing this complementing context.
Let’s just start with the fact that it took me a bit more time to complete my studies 
as I was already devoted to designing back then. My university time stretched like 
spaghetti because I was working, actively participating in competitions and lived and 
breathed my projects. The remaining subjects were done in my last - fifth or tenth year 
of my studies, call it whatever you like (laugh). It was then when I got very motivated 
and started to attend all the lectures and even passed the exams very well. And I have 
to admit that the knowledge I gained during my last year is very useful to this day. 
Bear in mind that what we learn during our studies is often a mystery to us. We start 
taking our baby steps in designing and we already approach constructions and instal-
lations, which truly become fascinating only later, when we know more and can shape 
the space in an interesting way and because we see the point in learning the technical 
side. These details become crucial as we see that no further step can be taken without 
them. And this is how, accidentally, I learned, because most of the technical subjects 
were completed by me towards the end.
But I’d also like to highlight that you don’t have to be the top of the class in every 
subject. There are things that are more important and you need to find some middle 
ground and not waste time on less important things. Design is the essence of our job 
and the other subjects are supposed to complement it. Even now, when someone 
comes to my studio with excellent grades across all subjects and all designs handed 
in on time, I cannot help but look at this person suspiciously. I want you to understand 
me well here, but I believe that a good architect is someone who devotes every mo-
ment to refine and enhance the project till the very last minute. Uses every possible 
interview interview
Design is the essence 
of our job.
Governors Island, NY
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202014 15
when I started getting to know my now-ex wife Marlena. And I remember that we were 
all supposed to take part in another competition and I really wanted Marlena to join 
our team, but a voting took place and she was banned from the group. So I figured out 
that I will ditch the group, as I believed her to be quite talented, and from now on we 
took part in competitions together. 
The first competition that we attempted with one more person was a cultural center 
on some Japanese Island. We didn’t win but our idea was truly genius. It was sup-
posed to be a place where all cultures and religions come together so our idea was 
related to the prism of white light and the rainbow that it forms. Each color reflected 
a different religion and contained a unit of truth and, when joined together, it repre-
sented the truth about God. The issue was that we couldn’t really translate it into the 
project. The idea was one thing but the design was a bit on the side of it. We could 
have executed it so much smarter. Obviously, we lost but back then we couldn’t un-
derstand why. Only with time we could figure out that we were too immature from the 
project point of view at the time - this failure came at the right time and allowed us to 
reach certain conclusions. Failures teach us much more than victories.
Then, as just the two of us, we participated in the competition for the bridge in Verona, 
which Marlena had spotted on the noticeboard in our faculty. Obviously, Verona is a 
beautiful city but the river is a bit detached from it due to a great flood that happened 
there in, I guess, the XIXth century. So they were looking for an idea to bring life back 
to the riverside. We werefiddling with the concept, looking for inspiration and two 
things came together here. 
Firstly, I watched an episode of Sonda, a popular science programme, where they 
mentioned the concept of VR glasses. Now it’s nothing new but bear in mind it was 
1994 and the concept of virtual reality was something groundbreaking. I was so 
amazed with the idea that I started to look for ways in which I could use it in the pro-
ject. So, unlike everyone else, we stretched the bridge into a kind of glass piazza, so 
that it didn’t obscure the view as there were some cafes there. What we wanted was 
to create a virtual museum where people experience the past and can compare the 
chance to polish it even more. So to me, someone who has everything ready two days 
before the deadline seems a bit unreliable, is not fit for the job and cannot call himself 
a creator. I believe there are exceptions to this rule, such as Norman Foster, who is 
totally organized, but unfortunately I’m not that way and there are not a lot of people 
like him. 
Again, I’m not trying to convince anyone to follow this path but there is a certain 
amount of wisdom in this approach. And, above all, design is the most important.
Given your experience – what the studies do not teach that is later crucial in 
the work of every architect?
Studies definitely don’t teach the practical aspects, that’s first. And second, if they 
were organized a bit better, they would have been a foretaste of the actual work. For 
instance, when you start in a studio and you participate in a project, you work with a 
constructor and other experts in their fields, encounter building regulations and area 
development plans. During the studies, our design is completely detached from our 
construction and installation classes. It would simply be enough to continue the task 
that we start in design classes in other subjects. Let’s say we’re designing a simple 
house, because you usually approach simple designs first. It would be great to de-
sign the installation and construction for this house in parallel. You don’t have to start 
with grand halls and count god knows what. It’s really worth learning on a smaller 
scale how all those aspects should interact with each other. If this worked like that we 
wouldn’t all graduate being such rookies. I really recommend to use your free time, 
if you have any, to supplement your school-based knowledge with on-the-job expe-
rience and participate in architecture competitions. This is essential if you want to 
become good at what you do.
Do you remember the first architecture competition?
The first one? Forgive my lapse of memory but probably it was a competition I took 
part in around the third or fourth year of my studies and I’m almost sure I didn’t man-
age to hand the work in on time. And this started a series of competitions. Aside from 
the smart approach to design and the ability to lead the project from the beginning 
to the end in a cohesive and coherent manner, I learned to self-organize. You really 
need to learn how to manage yourself in order to lead the project - set up the task, 
come up with the solution, draw it out and submit. I really couldn’t handle all that at 
the beginning. I was a person that likes to polish things till the last minute and give 
everything enough thought. So I always had the issue with being on time and my first 
few competitions were a failure due to late submissions.
You often mention two competitions – the bridge in Verona and Governor’s Is-
land. Why are they so important to you?
I need to go back in time a bit to explain this in detail. Before those competitions 
I won one competition and received an honorable mention in another. First, along 
with a few students I was invited to re-design a palace in Górzno, and it was the first 
competition that I won all by myself. For the second one, I joined forces with a few of 
my friends and we designed the expansion of Bauhaus in Weimar. It was also a time 
You really need to learn 
how to manage yourself 
in order to lead the 
project.
interview interview
Governors Island, NY
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202016 17
reality to how it used to look in different times. The whole city planning reflected the 
times before the flood, where the river ran through the city. What was amazing, back 
then we had no computers, which is very shocking to modern students who keep 
asking me, how was it possible to design back then. Well, we did it all by hand. And 
I remember, which is maybe hard to explain without seeing this project, that the look 
of this design seems a bit archaic. But the overall idea is really nice. There is a photo 
where you can see the past and the virtual reality, so suddenly people go through bro-
ken frames and symbolically enter the old world through architectural perspectives. 
What’s interesting, the project was almost finished and this motif with broken frames 
was added during the last night of drawing completely unconsciously. I was staying up 
late drawing and only in the morning I realized how freaking genius this idea is. Mar-
lena thought that I came up with that but, and I am aware this will sound like I’m crazy, 
I felt like I was just a medium and I could understand what I drew only in the morning.
We sent everything a week after the deadline, as it was still the time where my plan-
ning was a bit off. I begged the lady at the post office to back-date the parcel so it 
seemed that we mailed it a week before. Something completely impossible to do to-
day, but Poland was in a completely different era back then. I’m still thankful for that. 
Later, for a very long time we didn’t know that we had been awarded with the third 
place because the letter with that announcement got lost. We only found out right 
before New Year, by accident. 
And that is when we did the second competition, the Governor’s Island. A fantastic 
space - a former military base between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Americans were 
looking for an idea for that place. The Cold War was over so stationing of troops was 
no longer needed there. What is interesting about this island, is that part of it is formed 
naturally and the other part is manmade from the ground dug out from the subway 
that was built between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
 
Americans are obsessed with monuments, mainly because they have so few of them, 
so this island is extremely protected, which was a crucial issue in this project. But 
we were still looking for an idea, and the bar code concept came to our mind. Each 
product is marked with barcode, storing the information about the product’s and the 
producer’s history, in a sense. So we marked this island with the barcode in order to 
attach the history to it. But how to read this barcode now? It’s not a shop where you 
scan that code. But this beam of light inspired us to rework the idea that Jean Michelle 
Jarre uses in his concerts where lasers cross, forming three-dimensional images. In 
order to achieve that you need artificial fog, so we covered the entire island with it 
- from Manhattan or Brooklyn it would have looked like a mysterious land. Addition-
ally, we designed a forest of poles with movable mirrors and in the middle we placed 
a lighthouse emitting laser beams, so that it seemed that when you enter the island, 
you enter a virtual museum where you can see the building of the Statue of Liberty on 
a large scale. The poles did not impact the development of the island - they looked 
just like street lights because we put all of the infrastructure underground. We got an 
award for this project, but only when the attack on the World Trade Center happened, 
we truly realized how amazing and important this project was. If this project came to 
life, the two towers could still be present there as two luminous ghosts.
This project was done in 1996, and a few years later we saw an installation of New York 
based architects called Blur. We felt very sorry that they got to realize the project that 
we mothballed. But all we coulddo is to move on.
Those two projects are examples where the historical context plays an important role, 
but they also show how immateriality can complement architecture.
What did the competitions teach you?
First of all, each competition is a new project. And only the best and the most com-
petitive people participate in them. Those who are average just complete their eve-
ryday projects and go on with their lives. But the architects who live and breathe this 
business, and who are later heard off, participate in the competitions so you’re racing 
with the best. If you lose, you have the chance to notice which project won and learn 
from just that. So if you make relatively more projects than you would have done just 
due to studies, it helps you grow. 
Competitions bring new topics into the picture, each one tackles new issue and this 
is what our job is about. I am not one of those architects that would constantly want 
to design schools, hospitals or apartment buildings. I want to do everything and each 
theme is fascinating. There is always a first time for everything and those competition 
challenges teach you that. You get a task to design a theatre, so the first thing you do 
is to learn what theatre design is all about, research interesting existing designs here 
and there. Only once you acquire this knowledge you can move forward and suggest 
something new. This is the way both we and the architecture can grow.
It does also happen that those competitions shape our future. I’m thinking here about 
the Snøhetta case where ten young people did a competition on designing a big office 
and got to realize this idea. Sometimes your design remains on paper and sometimes 
Failures teach us much 
more than victories.
interview interview
By the Way House, Central Poland
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202018 19
you have the chance to bring it to life. So I really encourage everyone to do as many 
architecture competition projects as possible, doing them with due diligence and 
preparation, because it brings amazing growth. A few years into doing competitions 
my skills as a young architect were incomparably higher than people who would do 
four or five projects during a year or a semester. 
Let’s face it, I didn’t study at Columbia University but in Gliwice. The faculty was cool 
but it’s a whole other level and I wasn’t exposed to the best architects and didn’t have 
classes with them. However, through the competitions I was in touch with their ap-
prentices and judges who knew the top people in the industry. And it is like that until 
today.
Also, what I said at the beginning - the competitions teach self-discipline, organiza-
tional skills, resistance and obstinacy. They teach you the reality of this job, meaning 
that sometimes you need to stay up late at night, for multiple nights in a row in order 
to be on time. It’s a hard job, let’s be honest about it. On the one hand you need to be 
very sensitive, creative but you also need to be tough and possess mental strength. 
The competitions, if you manage to finish them, teach just that. These are the things 
that are not often being mentioned but an architect has to possess those qualities, so 
that he or she can motivate oneself and drive things till the end. Other than that you 
just learn and you temper yourself.
A few years ago you said “I want to race with the entire world even if the world 
is not aware of that”. To what extent did this sentence help you in your career 
and how did the competitions facilitate this?
We were always in awe of what is happening abroad - we never had the same op-
portunities, didn’t receive the same training and even later we couldn’t bring to life 
similar ideas. When I was starting school it was the last year of the People’s Republic 
of Poland. But the beauty of the creation process is that the beginnings are always the 
same - you sit down with a blank page and a pencil, just as the people you are in awe 
of. So the race takes place only in terms of ideas and this makes it the most beautiful 
and pure battle. 
I always liked and had that competitive spirit as I believe I have an inner sportsper-
son. And this thought came to me towards the end of my education, when we started 
receiving all of the awards and I noticed that not only we are not inferior to others, 
we are often better. And I decided that I will not settle for comparing myself to only 
what is around me, because it was all mediocre. Just because we had some limits in 
Poland doesn’t excuse my actions as they are the only thing that counts. That’s why 
I came up with that motto. I thought to myself “Screw what’s around me, I’m lifting my 
bar as high as possible” and I wanted to race with the best. Sometimes lifting the bar 
this high doesn’t mean you will be able to make that jump. But at least you will jump 
as high as you physically can. 
Those architecture competitions and meeting people from all around the world really 
gave me the sense that we are ok. After coming back from the States we decided to set 
up our own studio because we felt strong. Of course I had no idea back then what kind 
of responsibility this entails and what kind of problems this can cause, but I still had 
this young naivete. Now that I know all this I probably wouldn’t be as eager to repeat 
that, but back then, for the first time, we believed we could rock the world. Then came 
moments of doubts, and consecutive moments of strength and confidence. It’s a long 
and never ending process.
In one of your last interviews you mentioned that design really starts on pa-
per. Why do you believe everyone should begin with a blank page and a pencil 
instead of browsing through Pinterest for inspiration and how does the begin-
ning of the creative process look for you?
Well, coming back to this concept of racing with the entire world - if you want to do 
that, you have to do things that are your own fresh ideas that you can later develop 
and transform into a project. You cannot make copies. I am hypersensitive when it 
comes to that and it’s very easy to spot. When you hear people describing their pro-
jects you can often tell it’s all very shallow and no grand thought was behind it. You 
can clearly see the inspiration from something we already know. 
In Poland we have many cases of such inspirations and it also irritated me a lot that 
even the school teaches you this spin-off approach to design. Seriously, our profes-
sors used to show us magazines and even convince us to copy in order to not reinvent 
the wheel. But it’s bad! We are also often presetned with photos of design showing 
just the outer layers of it, without trying to understand where it came from. There is 
no attempt to learn design from scratch. And I see a lot of potential wasted this way 
- young, talented people don’t understand certain processes so they don’t believe in 
themselves and this is how they later design, by mimicking others. 
In my studio, through the years of laborious design, we learned discipline: there is 
a discussion, then drawing, ideas, concept and then we move forward in a logical 
way. When a person joins the KWK team and I already can see them peeking, looking 
for existing examples and I always tell them to leave it alone as it is only an obstacle. 
The only thing you need to focus at the moment, is what we are doing. Don’t look 
too far and don’t look at the architecture, but look at the things that surround you. 
Think about what we have to do. This is the only way to achieve something new and 
fresh, and you will be followed and mimicked by a mass of students and architects. 
This is our goal – to create things that are coherent and logical and sometimes can 
turn out to be innovative. We are not pushing for things to be new but this approach 
to design allows you to find a completely fresh trace every now and again and this 
is fantastic. 
The only way to achieve something new and fresh is to focus at the moment. This is 
how the best studios work – they do their ownthing and don’t look around too much. 
If you follow their work you will see that they have revolutionary ideas but then they 
often develop them, they are polished and refined, almost like an evolution of the 
idea. And the architects that look to the left a bit and then look to the right have no 
identity and their designs have nothing in common. My professor, Andrzej Duda, once 
said that a good painter paints the same image for the entire life. I didn’t understand 
it back then and thought it must be completely boring (laugh). But if you don’t take it 
literally, it is exactly about the evolution of your ideas further and further and forming 
your own path. 
Not everyone needs to 
own their own studio. 
The beauty of the 
creation process is that 
the beginnings are 
always the same - you 
sit down with a blank 
page and a pencil.
The race takes place 
only in terms of ideas.
interview interview
Verona Competition
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202020 21
It doesn’t mean, and I’d like to highlight that, that you need to completely detach 
yourself from what is happening in the world. You need to watch, follow and compare 
yourself to others, but not in the moment of coming up with ideas for design. And 
what I love most about architecture is that aside from creating a project, you create 
a certain solution that can be universal and that other people can derive and benefit 
from and interpret in their own way. A symbolic building block that appears in archi-
tecture, a new opportunity. This is why I’m so tough on people who try to copy – we 
need to draw and talk, draw and talk, and even if we look at other ideas and want to 
use one element, this needs to be discussed in detail and I can do it only with very 
aware architects. 
What equals a good project for you?
It’s a hard question. We’re not talking about math that gives us a clear-cut answer, 
we’re talking about something unmeasurable. But, and this is very cool about concep-
tualism, when you get a good idea, you suddenly get an answer to a row of uncertain-
ties, questions and problems. It’s truly amazing, but this is the way it works. Of course 
it is preceded by hard, wearisome work or followed by endless polishing of the initial 
idea, removing redundant elements, focusing on the most important things. I know 
it sounds a bit like magic, but somehow the idea comes to one person and not to 
the other. And, even if it sounds brutal, I need to mention that only 50 readers of this 
article will know what I mean and will be able to bring this to life, even if 100 thousand 
people read it, as they will do nothing about it. It’s quite brutal, but that’s how it works 
in the world of architecture. Because you need to be very talented, diligent, persistent 
and hard-working. I’m not trying to play the wise guy here, I’m saying this so people 
avoid disappointments. Some students think that all it takes to become great is to at-
tend a lecture of a brilliant architect and finish a good school. It doesn’t. It is given to 
very few people. But it is true not only about our job – look at football players. I could 
have believed I can be the next Lewandowski but we both know how possible this is, 
because I simply lack his talent.(laugh)
But coming back to the good project - it obviously needs to be functional, related 
to the context even if it escapes the frames a bit, but it must be settled in. We need 
to understand where we are, what we are designing, what kind of local context is to 
be used, what the local craftsmen can do and what is the history of the place – this 
is smart design. Also, it should attract attention, trigger discussions and age well – it 
should stand the test of time. It’s the same with music - there are a lot of songs that 
seem great now but after 10-15 years only evergreens remain. It’s the same with our 
projects. 
If you had to start all over again, what would you change?
I get this question quite a lot and my answers so far could be quite misleading so 
I will try to get it right this time. Of course, I would fix a lot of things on my path, I’d 
probably even graduate sooner and pay more attention to a few things, but I believe 
I mentioned that already. I certainly had a lot of luck and exhibited a great deal of per-
sistence, and, except for the God given things, I tried really hard. But I’d like to target 
my advice to particular groups without assigning people to them.
To the small group of very talented students I’d like to say that just because you are 
talented doesn’t mean everything will sort itself out. Talent is not enough and you 
have to back it up with amazing, extra hard work. Take risks, sometimes you will need 
to put all eggs in one basket - without that, success is hard to achieve. It is worth to 
study and practice in good studios but focus on one or two so that you have enough 
time to learn. It will help to shape you and increase the chance of your success. But 
sometimes this still might not be enough, as our industry can be brutal at times. But I 
truly believe things are achievable if we really really want them. 
A few words to those who are not extremely talented, but really want it - there might 
be situations on your path that might lead to great frustration and a perception that 
others have it easier. Please understand that not everyone can become the Lewan-
dowski of architecture, our Foster, Koolhaas or Sejima. But you can still do great things 
with your team, in a great studio and feel fulfilled. The greatest people are talented in 
many spectrums but if you have special skill in one field, i.e. you have a great eye for 
detail, you can really be a great player in your team and contribute a lot. Not everyone 
needs to their own studio. 
But it’s never worth letting go, taking shortcuts and doing things we don’t feel, be-
cause they will come back to haunt us, sooner than later. I had many great colleagues 
that I competed with during studies who, due to many circumstances that I really 
don’t want to judge, did one or two bad projects that the clients kept coming back for 
and they became slaves of their own designs. I don’t wish this on anyone and this is 
why our choices are important especially at the beginning.
Polish architect, member of the French Academy of Architecture since 
2019. In 1999, he founded the KWK Promes studio, known for its concep-
tual approach to design that leads to frequent experiments and searches to 
improve the functionality of buildings and spaces. Konieczny gained inter-
national recognition in 2007, when Dom Aatrialny by KWK Promes won an 
award in the World Architecture News competition for the best residential 
house in the world. Since then, he has regularly won awards in interna-
tional architectural competitions, including the European Prize for Urban 
Public Space 2016 for The Przełomy Dialogue Center (Best Public Space 
in Europe) and the Wallpaper Design Award 2017 for the architect’s own 
house, Arka Konieczny (Best House in the World). KWK Promes projects 
have also been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe award. At the mo-
ment, the activities of the studio are more and more focused on searching 
for solutions adapting architecture to the inevitable climate changes and 
the related challenges.
robert KoNieczNy 
Not everyone needs to 
start their own studio.
photo: Marcin Gola
interview interview
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202022 23
redesigning 
ourselves with 
every project
Piotr Kalinowski, the owner of a young 
and fresh studio MIXD, shares with us his 
5 ingredients of success and discusses the 
significance of following your own path 
without taking shortcuts.
Marcin Husarz: Piotr, please tell me a few words about yourself and your com-
pany, MIXD.
Piotr Kalinowski: My name is Piotr Kalinowski. I am the CEO and co-founder of the 
company MIXD from Wrocław, Poland. We design interior experiences in hospitality, 
workplace, offices and retail. We are a company that understands that interior design 
and experience design should work together.Why is that different from the competition? Because we think that interior design is 
not enough for today’s world. That’s why we started to rethink the strategy behind the 
design and came up with an idea that, since the design itself has been copied over 
and over and designs are made similar to each other, MIXD doesn’t want to follow this 
path. So we have developed a process and also an idea that we actually need to focus 
on experience first, which means we need to put some questions first before we do 
the actual interior design. That’s why we say we design interior experiences because 
we want to focus on what people feel, on what people recognize, how they share inte-
rior spaces, and how they actually use the space - this is our driver for interior design. 
So first of all, we start with very heavy research work and after that we do it through 
design. We do not confuse those things. Experience is the most important thing about 
our work. 
What MIXD design strategy is all about?
In MIXD we are bored with interior design that is repetitive so we want to make every 
project different. We want to redesign ourselves with every project. We want to dis-
cover the unique style and unique story behind a specific location, a specific client. 
So that’s why we research and that’s why we try to break the status quo of design and 
interior design. That’s why we want to inspire others to choose us for their project. And 
that’s why we hire people to work with us not for us. 
When we started the MIXD Studio we wanted to create something different. That’s why 
we have created Five Pillars of design. The first one is disruption. We were inspired by 
TBWA marketing company – they have developed a strategy called disruption and it 
starts with questioning everything you know. What it does, is leading you to a valu-
able uniqueness and unique product. Disruption breaks things into parts and you can 
actually see them very clearly and you can make decisions based on that. 
The second one, connected to disruption, is the process. Our process is called Design 
Cycles, and it’s based on agile methodology. Before I started the company, everyone 
was saying that agile doesn’t work in interior design. I was travelling to New York, and 
I visited the company called Kickstarter - they showed me around their office and they 
told me that I was the first person that asked how agile could work with interior de-
sign. They advised me just to try it and I was really taken by a methodology based on 
the idea that you can work in a flexible way, you can put your clients and their goals 
first, and also that you should be creating effective documentation. The documenta-
tion is not a work of art and it doesn’t need to be spread in endless fields of work - you 
need to effectively cut what is not important. So the effectiveness creates more space 
and more time for you.
You won’t be able to design different things if you base your work on a visionary ap-
proach. If you’re a visionary - all right, you can be a visionary! But you need to let 
people in on your vision and that’s what the process is for - it’s a tool to let people in 
on the vision so they can work with you. 
interview interview
We want to redesign 
ourselves with every 
project.
Intive office Wrocław, by MIXD, photo: Studio Pion, 
Mariola Żołądź Photography
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202024 25
And also the story is very important to make good projects. Everything today is a story 
– if you create a unique story, if you discover the story from the client perspective, for 
example in hospitality, in their work, in their location or in your idea or your vision of 
the location, something very engaging, then you can create a Netflix story for your 
own project. Basically, if you can do a series of videos about your project and tell in-
teresting things about it, the project will be good. It will be because you put life into it 
and created something that is timeless. If you do something that is just a copy of the 
pictures from Pinterest and because you wanted to make it quickly, the project won’t 
last long. It won’t be valuable. But if it has the layering inside: you have the second 
meaning and the third meaning and all the details also contain the meaning, the pro-
ject will be timeless. It’s so simple and so difficult. 
The fourth element, authenticity, is quite crucial, because when it lies within yourself, 
it brings a unique value. If you want to be yourself and find your own path and your 
own vision for a project, and even your entire company, and if you want to win the 
competition, you want to ask yourself important questions. You need to be authentic. 
If you are authentic people will discover you and it’s very important and quite hard to 
maintain. It is a lot of work behind that is not connected to your design. You need to be 
very self-aware and open and have the guts to say it out loud to your client or maybe 
to yourself even, and then follow it. But if you are an authentic person, if you live your 
life the way you want to live, things will happen and you will discover a lot of things. 
The final significant element is nostalgia, a process which creates good memories 
from the past so that you can use it in your projects as well. Nowadays the 90’s & 80’s 
are a great source of inspiration, containing things that aren’t online yet - people scan 
images from old newspapers and put it online on Instagram because they seem fresh. 
People remember things, and through that process they transform them at the same 
time, which makes it a creative activity. People like to discover those nostalgic things, 
so using those elements in projects is very engaging. That’s why people smile when 
they see cassettes or old iMacs and PCs, or some kind of old music from the 80’s – 
people discover this right now, but in time they will discover things that were super 
important for them in 2000-2010 and maybe even three weeks ago. Those are the five 
ingredients. If you combine them, you have MIXD.
You mentioned that your design process differs from the standard one. Could 
you describe it?
In MIXD we have developed our own design process, which is based on an agile meth-
odology of being flexible, putting your client first and preparing effective design docu-
mentation. 
What makes it different from the other practices? We usually build experience design 
first. So that’s the first phase of the design. It’s not the concept work. It’s an experience 
work. So we build a foundation for every other design decision and that’s different. We 
want to paint the big picture first and we have time for that and we must reserve time 
for that. Nowadays design needs to be quick and needs to be effective. We no longer 
have three years for design. We need to be flexible as the clients have their own goals, 
so we need to go along with them. 
The second phase is the concept project but we build it connected to the experience 
design. And we also do it in cycles. And that’s why we have called the process design 
cycles. Why cycles? Because agile methodology says that you need to improve the 
documentation, the design and the concept with every cycle, and you go from general 
schemes into the details. Then you consult it after each sprint, which is every two or 
three weeks. So after two or three weeks we show the work to our client. Maybe it’s not 
the finished project. Maybe it’s some kind of movie or a bunch of images. Sometimes 
it’s just a conversation, but the client always gives his feedback and we make sure that 
we listen and learn a lot from it – the client needs to have this feeling that he’s the co-
author of this project. 
Again, you need to be authentic to handle the feedback of the client. It’s not that you 
cannot argue with him or say that your opinion is different, but if you let him, he can 
give you valuable feedback and he can tell you so many important things that you 
won’t discover by yourself. And this is very important to know, especially for young de-signers, that the client is not your enemy and agile is saying that. As I mentioned, the 
methodology originates from the IT world, where you do software work, so it needs 
to work but it needs to work fast. So if you let your client in, he will give you great 
value and if you can discover it, if you can listen to it, you can bring it to the project 
and transform it into the design because you are a design specialist, you know how to 
design things. That’s your profession, not his. He wants to have the work done.
And then, after every sprint, we do even more detailed work. This approach results 
in the fact that when we finish the design, it is almost always accepted by the cli-
ent. Interior designers usually work according to certain schemes where they work 
by themselves on everything and then show the final product to the client. And the 
clients often say that that’s not what they wanted. Nowadays clients are very creative, 
for instance baristas. Everyone has instagram, pictures and so they often have their 
own visions of their own homes, their own hotels, workplaces. So in the process you 
want to take into consideration, and you need to bring that it to life using your own 
interview interview
Resort Hotel, concept by MIXD
Ibis Styles, Sarajevo by MIXD, 
photo: Studio Pion
If you let your client in, 
he will give you great 
value... He wants to 
have the work done.
If the project has the 
layering inside: 
you have the second 
meaning and the 
third meaning and 
all the details also 
contain the meaning, 
the project will be 
timeless.
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202026 27
craft experience. That’s your job. They are not people without any vision. Sometimes 
it happens, but usually it’s like - I have this idea how to make it happen? What’s yours? 
And you need a process to be clashed with that. And this is a concept work and after 
that there’s a design documentation, but also you have the cycles and you act in some 
kind of phases. You don’t deliver everything, you don’t throw everything at the client 
and expect that he will be okay with it. You need to deliver some parts and get feed-
back, and then some more parts and feedback. You also need to be transparent with 
the client, tell him what you do, when will you deliver the next step.
What studies didn’t teach you?
I finished five years of studies of architecture - mostly building, not interior design. My 
studies weren’t that good - I mentioned that a lot in my other interviews. What I did 
not learn in college and my studies? I did not learn how to work in groups. They also 
didn’t teach me how to start my own company as an architect, which is very impor-
tant. Usually architects are also project managers. They need to have the business 
skills but there’s no topic about business in our studies. So I needed to figure out those 
things by myself, but the most important thing was the curiosity for design, curiosity 
for work. The studies and the teachers weren’t passionate enough to show me that 
architecture is a cool thing to do. How to become a good architect, how to be yourself, 
how to believe in your projects, what’s the process - nobody teaches you that. Usually, 
when you start to design things in the first or second year your designs are very bad. 
Really bad! That is because you cannot design everything well in the first year. And if 
they are bad, those teachers should show that actually it’s a process of learning and 
they need to be bad, because you learn from your mistakes. That’s the usual process. 
But during the studies you just receive this opinion that it’s bad and it’s over - nobody 
discusses it with you and even if it’s good there’s still no discussion. There’s a lack of 
discussion of projects and problems of young architects. It’s not preparing for future 
work or for future doubts. So studies only teach certain craft aspects which nowadays 
can be found on the internet because they do not teach you the process, they do not 
teach you the business skills, presentation skills.
What was the biggest lesson that you got from the cooperation with Marlena 
Wolnik?
During my studies I travelled to Ireland. I went to Dublin to work as an architect and 
I was hired by a company and put into the team of Marlena Wolnik. She is a famous 
Polish architect who co-founded KWK Promes with Robert Konieczny - a very heavily 
awarded studio. I was hired as her intern, her assistant in the Dublin studio. And this 
was the first time after three years of college that I discovered that architecture can be 
fun! She showed me that you can work because you like to. I was observing her while 
working and she was having fun.
There was something very special in her craft - she was doing contextual architecture. 
Nowadays it’s quite usual - young practices always throw those small sketches show-
ing where the sun goes, and how you could cut this element of the building, and you 
can rotate it. And this is genius. But the process of looking for a right solution, for the 
context of architecture - she had this included in every project. I haven’t heard about 
it before so she told me that actually looking for the right solution in the project is a 
matter of process. I have translated all that into the process of agile approach, the 
story, the authenticity, disruption and everything else, but the fact that architecture 
is looking for the concepts of sun location, situation, slope, everything – that was so 
important. For me there’s something behind it and she was having fun with it. Later, 
I came back to study in the fourth year. And since then I had only good grades in the 
design courses because I was using this process. My teachers were very impressed but 
they didn’t know that actually I was learning something outside of the studies.
Are architecture competitions a good way to start your career? 
They are a good idea as a learning process for doing our designs right after the studies, 
or during the studies. First of all you do interesting designs. Second thing, you can fail 
miserably in the process and learn. You need constructive feedback, whether it comes 
from the judges or your friend. Ask them, what would they do differently. Verify what 
projects have won and why, so you can compare your work to the competition and 
you can see different approaches. Competitions are also a fun thing to do in a team, 
so you can learn teamwork.
Do you remember your first competition?
Oh, I remember very well. My first official competition was during the first year of MA 
studies and I failed miserably. My father was a certified architect at the time so he in-
vited me to do concept design for the Modern Art Museum. I did a lot of concepts, but 
he told me that they were too experimental so we did something very safe. The safe 
project wasn’t very bad but it wasn’t good either. Still, we submitted it for the com-
petition and didn’t win anything. However, I remember the stress, the heavy hours 
that we put into it. I remember the questions that I needed to answer. I had to handle 
my stress, my work and had to ask myself questions and make decisions on time so I 
got the sense of the process that you do every day at the work.
What benefits do the competitions bring?
You can win money (laugh). It sounds silly but for the first time you can make some 
interview interview
How to become 
a good architect, 
how to be yourself, 
how to believe in 
your projects, what’s 
the process – nobody 
teaches you that. 
Foodstacja, Wrocław by MIXD, photo: Studio Pion, 
Mariola Żołądź Photography
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202028 29
money off architecture, which is not as easy as it seems. Secondly, you can win some-
thing much more valuable - you can win recognition. You can win an internship in 
a practice to work with someone else. You may gain a good project for your portfolio, 
which can come handy when you will be applying for jobs. In the interview your future 
supervisor will ask you questions about it, and that gives you a chance to say some-thing interesting about your work, your process, your vision, your authenticity. You 
can build on that if you have nothing else. Also, competition is usually more interest-
ing than your classes. 
Is it worth opening your own studio right after the studies or should you first 
try to work for someone else?
When I finished the studies I asked myself a question: should I start my own com-
pany or should I work for someone else? And I asked my mentor at the time, Marlena 
Wolnik, this question because she was a successful architect. She told me something 
that I will remember my whole life: “You will be making mistakes because you’re not 
experienced. If you can handle the responsibility that comes with them and take ac-
count for them, go with your own company. If you want to make mistakes on someone 
else’s credit, i.e. your boss, someone’s company, just go and learn under someone.”
How do you get new clients? As a quite new company on the market, you al-
ready work internationally. How to attract your first client?
MIXD is a young studio. This is our third year of work. We have already hired around 15 
architects. And we run approximately 10 or dozen projects at the same time. How to 
get your first client is a very important question because it’s the toughest part. Yet, it’s 
a crucial part in starting your own company. I could go on and on about it!
First of all, you need to know what you want to do. You need to narrow down your 
clients. You cannot see yourself as an architect of everything. For example, for me it’s 
hotels - this is my priority. I also like to do offices and retail. So I focused on three ele-
ments. Of course, I was working before that in these fields. It wasn’t like I came straight 
from studies, although I believe it is possible. 
Secondly - you need to work your ass off. You need to research: where your clients are 
located, who are the decision makers. You need to go into social media, you need to 
discover those guys. You need to know everything about the companies you want to 
work with. You need to do all the research about certain markets and then you will dis-
cover the people that are responsible for choosing the designers. It takes two weeks 
of work, maybe one month of research. You need to call, you need to get in touch, go 
to conferences, you need to approach them. You need to create some value behind 
yourself. You need to create your brand as well. 
How does the presence of social media impact architecture and the way we 
design?
Social media’s impact on our lives and design is huge and, as I said already, when 
I started the company, I had this idea that I should use it somehow to help me with 
running the company. However, I didn’t expect that to be so effective. They say that 
social media accelerates your message. It’s not changing the world. It’s not changing 
anything. It’s just an empty pipe that is filled with people’s opinions and people’s sto-
ries but I put a little ingredient in it and it had a huge impact on our work and in our 
growth. And I think it was a great decision to have the social media presence from the 
very beginning and to use it very very often. People usually are shy or are not ready 
to use social media right. They just share pictures from their private life or pictures of 
their friends. And that’s fine. That’s okay. But if you run a business you can say things 
that are actually important to you, you can document your work, you can put out a lot 
of content and it will make people follow you and follow your passion. That is if you 
have it of course! They see what you do and they want to be involved in it somehow. 
So social media is a major element of MIXD - we are a company that uses and will 
develop its social media further. We want to use it to share our ideas, our projects and 
our designs. We want to connect with new clients and friends. 
In what way should the young architects use social media? How did the social 
media change the role of modern-world architects?
Young architects should jump on social media as soon as possible and use it as heav-
ily as possible, in my opinion. They should showcase their work. They should show-
case their approach, their story, their background or even their travel pics and their 
interview interview
Foodstacja, Wrocław by MIXD, photo: Studio Pion, 
Mariola Żołądź Photography
Social media accelerates 
your message.
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202030 31
inspiration. They should show a narrative, a kind of story, not just a picture under 
a nice building they’ve just seen. It should be clear why you chose those pictures, 
what’s behind it. You want to show people what’s behind it! Why is it interesting for 
you? People want to know if they will see you and this professional perspective. They 
will want to follow you and want to engage with you if you’re good and if you will bring 
value to their lives. And it should be professional. I don’t share so much about my pri-
vate life unless the private life connects with the professional bit. But I don’t show my 
every private moment. Young architects should decide what’s their strategy for social 
media but they definitely should use it.
CEO and creative director of the MIXD studio from Wrocław. Interior design-
er, known for his work on hospitality spaces, offices and retail facilities. For 
many years, he has been designing interiors for brands such as Novotel, 
Mercure, Hilton, MGallery or ibis Styles, but also for boutique hotels and 
restaurants, and dynamic startups such as intive or Codelab.
Together with his design team he has won the International Property Award 
2016/2017, International Property Award 2019/2020, Silver Medal A’Design 
Award, Honorable Mention IDA Award, BIG SEE 2020 Award and other 
awards, honorable mentions and nominations; a finalist of the Hospitality 
Design Award 2020 competition. A speaker at many conferences related to 
the industry, interior and furnishing design, including Warsaw Home, Łódź 
Design Festival, 4 Design Days, Hotel Trends Poland & CEE, Hotel Meeting. 
An active Instagram user, where he reports on his travels, designer inspira-
tions, shows interesting public interiors and the daily work of MIXD.
Piotr KaLiNowsKi
interview
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114464_Anz_Schiebekampagne_235x295mm_B2B.indd 1 26.10.20 10:59
ACY∙202032
African house design 
Competition
A home for the Jorejick Family
Tanzania suffers from a terrible shortage of good quality and affordable hous-
ing. So dire is this shortage that the nation currently carries a 3 million hous-
ing deficit coupled with a 200.000 unit annual demand. Over seventy percent 
of its urban residents live in unplanned and unserviced informal settlements.
With that in mind, Archstorming looked for a housing design to be implemented 
not only in Tanzania, but also in other African countries where housing is an in-
creasing problem. 
In order to do so, the current competition explored efficient and economic ways to 
build houses in Africa. The Jorejick family, located near Karatu, Tanzania, were the 
firsts we have help. They are a Tanzanian family from the tribe of the Iraqw. They 
live in Getamock, a small town in the north of the country. The family includes 19 
people, of which 15 currently live in the house.
They live in huts and lack potable water and electricity. They have a precarious in-
frastructure, humid and poorly hygienic environments and a shortage of nutritious 
food. Diseases, especially in children, are constant.
The winning designs proposed a house for 15 people that included 6 bedrooms, 
a living room, an outdoor and an indoor kitchen, showersand latrines, a corral 
and the cattle area. The winner proposal was designed by Marianna Castellari and 
Giovanni Checchia de Ambrosio, from Bologna, Italy. They’ve come up with a solu-
tion that uses local materials, implementing simple construction techniques, cross 
ventilation, thermal control, shading and water collection. Once the fundraising 
process is completed (more info at www.unhogarentanzania.com) the construc-
tion of their proposal will start. 
The second prize was given to Gerardo Peregrín Arcas, Marc Amigó Cañas and 
Miguel De Rojas Dierssen from Barcelona, Spain; and the third prize corresponded 
to the team formed by Luis Gil and Evan Farley from Los Angeles, USA. Visit our web 
page (www.archstorming.com) to find out about more humanitarian competitions.
t he project aims at designing a suitable living space for the Jorejick Family, using local materials, implementing the construction process with self-con-struction techniques and integrating the beauty of a simple design with solu-
tions for improving the crossing ventilation, thermal control, shading and water col-
lection.The house is located at the entrance of the plot, leaving a large central space 
for cattle, neighbors passage, day-activities and the possible future enlargement 
of Nico’s House.The house is designed around a courtyard, an open and protected 
space, that can be shaded thanks to a wood pergola; it becomes an enlargement of 
the indoor common area in according to weather changing and the movement of the 
sun, improving ventilation across the house. 
1st prize
project name 
Jorejick Family 
house
authors 
Marianna Castellari
giovanni Checchia 
de Ambrosio
Italy
ACY∙2020 35ACY∙202034
1st prize 1st prize
sections plan
The house is designed on a bricks raised podium, that protects the inside floor from 
rain, dust and animals. The kitchen area, the storage and the water supply tank are 
facing north and they are contained by thick walls for better preserving food and wa-
ter. They are provided with roofed outdoor space, as the sheltered outdoor kitchen, 
to let the family carry household activities around the house. The house walls facing 
south are shaded by a structure made by wood and local hand-made carpets, that be-
comes a geometrical and colorful decoration. The main construction system is made 
by thick bricks walls; the brick becomes a decorative motif and it gives movement to 
the façades. 
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202036 37
1st prize 1st prize
sections
water collection
scheme
The secondary walls are made by wood structure with mud and straw filling, covered 
with natural mud plaster. They are easy to be built and they help the thermal control. 
The roof is a metal sheet supported by wood structure, in between the wood beams 
there is a straw layer, as a sound and heat insulation. The roof overhangs is 60-70 cm 
and it is important for shading and rain protection. The slope of the roof is studied to 
collect much water as possible. The water tank is connected to a double sink, one in-
side and one outside, that facilitate the cleaning of kitchen utensils, clothes, and they 
improve hygiene. In the outside area around the house there are the Porch for corral 
and crop storage and some simple wood-colored structures for playing or making 
exercises. The project wants to improve the toilet system, suggesting the permanent 
construction of a bio-compost toilet, that controls odors and produces fertilizer.
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202038 39
2nd prize 2nd prize
project name 
African house
authors 
gerardo Peregrín Arcas
Marc Amigó Cañas
Miguel de rojas dierssen
Spain
A project for people... a Home for Africa
 
s ince the beginning, we focused on versatility for this project since we aspire not only to satisfy the Jorejick family but many more through-out the continent.
To achieve that the Life and Form of this land have been our guide
Life
In a continent still liking the industrialization of the west, the earth is still the pri-
mary way families put a plate on the table, so we decided to make that same 
earth the central spine of our building which holds the whole structure together.
Form
The second element is found in tradition. The Iraqw huts are rooted in their his-
tory and with a game of symmetry and turns, we generate a skin with the same 
lines as their original structure. This skin collects water and guides the flow of 
air. After studying the habits of the Jorejick family we realized that this home 
could not be just a house, closed off from the outside. It needs to be an element 
that bridged the gap between the outside and inside giving them a gradient of 
closeness to enjoy the outside while also being protected from it.
plot
If the man is ignored, 
architecture is unnecessary
Alvaro Siza, Lisbon expo 98
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202040 41
2nd prize
diagrams
The layout of the house is centered around the marvelous acacia that inhabits 
their plot creating a patio that functions as the heart of the project’s life, and 
serves as a hinge between the day area (kitchen, living room, etc.) and the night 
area (bedrooms). The courtyard functions as a point of attachment to the site 
and can be used to embrace landmarks when used in other locations.
The separation in sections (services, communal areas, and private areas) makes 
the wind (predominantly SE) prevent the air from the services from reaching 
any other part of the house. Also, the patio separates two sectors of the roof 
that divide the water and its uses between the sections.
The outer skin is independent of the house interior elements making it perfect 
to tackle the local weather conditions. Not only is the ventilation useful to dis-
sipate the heat from the structure but also to keep a healthy environment. All 
of this is achieved with a design that is not only simple and cheap to build but 
also adaptable to different family needs and even scalable after its construc-
tions in case those needs were to change. It is not a house for the Jorejick fam-
ily, it is a Home for Africa.
2nd prize
ACY∙2020 ACY∙202042 43
3rd prize 3rd prize
floor plan axonometry
project name 
generational house
authors 
luis gil
Evan Farley
USA
b ringing together four generations under one roof, the Generational House is designed to create meaningful spaces for both gathering 
and respite. Its location and orientation on the site 
has been carefully chosen in response to circulation 
patterns and climate conditions in order to provide 
a comfortable home that is connected to its context 
while providing privacy for its residents.
Articulated into a public and private bar, the Genera-
tional House seamlessly bisects the paths of the pas-
serby to the front and works with the adjacent tree 
line to create a semiprivate perimeter of outdoor liv-
ing space to the back. The corner front entrance of 
the house is situated to the south, through the main 
entrance of the property, providing a designated entry 
point for family and a privacy screen to neighbors ac-
cessing their homes to the east and west.
The chosen shape of the house accentuates the pri-
ority to preserve the existing herbaceous shade cover 
while allowing visibility from the house to the cattle 
pen, yard and most of the existing buildings on the 
property. At every unit of the house’s structure, win-
dows allow for visibility to the front of property as well 
as increased lighting and additional airflow during 
certain times of the day, as needed.
ACY∙2020 45ACY∙202044
3rd prize 3rd prize
detail wall sections
south elevation
west elevation
Additionally, the two-bar scheme is oriented to maximize comfort. The bedrooms 
are lifted and oriented to receive optimal ventilation based on the prevailing winds 
on the site from the south east. The public bar is constructed with a heavier, well 
shaded thermal mass intended to counteract the hot western sun. 
As the Jorejick family continues to grow, the house can adapt to accommodate 
shifting needs. The private bedrooms can fit